Serpent (26 page)

As he’d
hoped, Penelope was interested in the change of subject. “Like what?”

Tacey, full of sweets, was walking on ahead of them and had already reached the stall where the merchant carried all manner of amazing things
. Bhrodi watched his sister pick up a beautiful silk veil.

“Anything you can imagine, I am sure,” he said as they arrived. “See if there isn’t something you would like to have.”

Penelope was hesitant but Tacey wasn’t; she plunged into the stall with the leaning roof and pulled Penelope in after her. There were so many items for sale that it was all quite crowded; fabric, veils, combs and mirrors, jewelry, and finally perfumes. Tacey, so very eager to shop, picked up a bronze comb and matching mirror. Made of polished bronze, she held it up to Penelope.

“You need this,” she declared. “You only have a horsehair brush and you ha
ve no mirror at all. You need a mirror.”

Penelope gazed into the mirror, seeing her clear reflection for the first time at close range. Certainly, her mother and sisters had mirrors, but she had never paid much attention to the
m. Now, she found herself gazing back at a beautiful woman with pale skin, a few freckles on her nose, wide hazel eyes, and delicately arched brows.

“You are beautiful,” Bhrodi murmured.

He was standing directly behind her, watching her as she inspected her reflection. Embarrassed, she went to set the mirror down but he grasped her wrist and forced her to hold it up in front of her face again. He continued admiring her for a moment, inspecting the face that was unlike any he had ever seen.
My wife
. Even as he thought it, the truth of the situation seemed unreal.

“You, there,” he said to the merchant. “Bring me those necklaces over there. Aye; those are the ones. I would try them on my wife.”

Penelope shook her head. “Please,” she whispered. “I do not want to….”

He cut her off though it was gently done. “Aye, you do,” he said softly, his hot breath on her ear creating shivers down her spine. “You wish to make your husband happy, and he is happy when he sees you in beautiful things. Let me do this, Penny. Please.”

He had called her Penny, sounding sweet and gentle coming from his lips. She’d never heard her name sound so tender, not even from her parents. With a sigh of resignation, she forced a smile as he had the merchant place necklace after necklace on her slender neck. All of them had precious stones, some were made of gold and some were made of silver. Some were chokers around her neck and some hung low between her breasts. All the while, Tacey was exclaiming how beautiful everything was, which made Penelope take a second look as the jewelry hung around her neck. She really never wore jewelry so she wasn’t particularly adept at knowing what was beautiful and what was gaudy. But very quickly she learned that she liked things that were simple in design. When the merchant hung a simple necklace of gold chain and purple stones, she liked it right away.

“That is quite nice,” she said, admiring it in the mirror.

“We shall take it,” Bhrodi said quickly. “It is the first thing she has liked and I’ll be damned if I am going to let it get away. Wrap it up for her.”

The merchant nodded, thrilled at the big sale, and went to package up the jewelry.
Tacey, meanwhile, had set aside several different things and when she asked her brother if she could have them, a denial was perched on his lips until Penelope cast him a quick glance before inspecting all of the wonderful things.

“I think you deserve all of these,” she told Tacey. “The baby deserves some things, too, does he not?
Did you pick out anything for him?”

Tacey instinctively put her hand on her big belly
. She looked rather confused. “Your mother told me the things I would need,” she said. “She told me that babies need swaddling and pillows, and I do have blankets and pillows in my chamber.”

“For the baby?”

“They belong to me but I will share with him.”

Penelope glanced at Bhrodi
with a rather worrisome expression. “The baby needs his
own
things,” she said, putting her hand on Tacey’s shoulder. “Didn’t my mother tell you that?”

Tacey was so young; a child having a child, and it was difficult for her to think of others over herself
. The child was in her belly, that was true, but it still wasn’t real to her yet. Penelope knew that her mother and aunt had tried to tell Tacey things to expect with the baby, but it was clear the girl hadn’t absorbed much. She was only capable of thinking about herself at the moment. She was just too young to truly grasp the concept of what she was in for.

“He will share my things,” she said, looking at her brother as if he would confirm her decision. “Can I have these lovely items, please? The silks and the perfumes?”

Bhrodi sighed, looking at Penelope to see if he could read her expression. Penelope, however, didn’t give him much encouragement one way or the other; she had simply turned away to set down the mirror she had been holding. Without Penelope’s support, he went with his natural instinct.

“Nay,” he said. “You have enough
fine things and any money I spend from now on will be for your son. He will be here in two months and we must start planning for him.”

Tacey’s features fell. “Like what?” she demanded. “He is just a baby. What does he need?”

“A bed,” Penelope said. “Does he even have one? He cannot sleep with you, you know. He is too tiny. He will need swaddling and blankets and clothing to wear. Does he have any of that?”

Tacey shook her head unsteadily. “Nay,” she said reluctantly. “
I… I do not suppose he has any of those things.”

Penelope looked at Bhrodi. “Then that is what we must buy today,” she said. “Material for clothes for the baby and we must find a carpenter who can build him a bed.”

She seemed very determined about it, much as her mother had showed such determination in everything she did. But the fact was that Bhrodi couldn’t disagree with her; he was the first one to admit that he had been rather lax in taking care of his sister’s needs much less the baby’s needs. Therefore, he nodded his head.

“Then let us find these things,” he said, waving the women onward in the direction of the avenue. “My nephew must have something to wear and a place to sleep.”

Tacey was disappointed as she left the shop without any of her precious items, even more disappointed when Bhrodi collected the necklace he had purchased for his wife and handed it over to Gywillim to keep safe. Tacey wished it was
her
necklace. Now, she wasn’t so excited about coming to town as she realized her brother would not be purchasing things for her; he would be purchasing things for the baby. She was jealous. Unhappy, she followed Penelope and Bhrodi down the avenue in their search for baby items.

It didn’t take long for them to find fleecy-soft lamb’s wool for the baby’s clothing and very soft linen for his swaddling
. Penelope reckoned that any one of the women her mother had hired could sew, so she wasn’t worried about who would make the clothing. Tacey certainly couldn’t and even now as they moved down the muddy avenue, she was dragging behind, obviously pouting that she was not getting any pretty things.

Ivor
and Yestin had gone off in search of a carpenter and had quickly located one on the next block. When Bhrodi told the man what they needed, the carpenter agreed to make a baby’s cradle and have it to Rhydilian Castle within a month. As Bhrodi was giving the man half of his payment, with the promise of the other half when the cradle was delivered, a wretched and low sound filled the air.

It was a startling sound, something between a moan and a hiss. It came from the direction they had just come from, the center of town, and they all turned to see a cluster of women who had come up behind them
. The sound was coming from them.

“I heard you were in town, de Shera,” a woman wept loudly, pointing fingers at him. She was an older woman, finely dressed, and was surrounded by other ladies who evidently served her.
They were all weeping and pointing. When she realized that she had Bhrodi’s attention, she screeched. “My husband went to your wedding yesterday and has not returned. I was told you killed everyone who attended! Well? Is this true?”

It was Tudur
ap Gwyfn’s wife, Lady Ceridwen. Bhrodi knew the woman fairly well; she was from a powerful Welsh family and a woman of breeding, but at the moment, she was howling like a low-born wench. Given the complex circumstances of his wedding, he wasn’t about to engage her in a conversation about it much less a shouting match. Without a word, he turned away from her.

“Let us move down the street,” he said quietly to Penelope and Tacey.

He began to move with his
teulu
surrounding him, but ap Gwyfn’s wife would not be ignored. She followed.

“My servants told me that you had come into town,” she said, yelling after him. “I came to find you,
de Shera. What have you done to my husband? You have punished him because he opposed your marriage to the Saesneg whore!”

Penelope’s knightly training kicked in; she was adept at covering her emotions when faced with a crisis, at least for the most part, but she did glance at Bhrodi to see how he was reacting
. His features were tight as he kept walking. Tacey, however, kept turning around to look at the woman who was following them.

“Who
is
that?” she whispered to her brother.

Bhrodi kept his eyes on the avenue straight ahead. “No one,” he replied. “Ignore her.”

Tacey was frightened by the woman’s yelling but she forced herself to face forward just as Penelope and Bhrodi were. Ceridwen, however, would not be discarded so easily; she began to throw great clumps of mud at them, digging them up from the avenue.

“Murderer!” she screamed, throwing mud that hit Ianto in the neck. “You murdered my husband because he came to speak to you of your wedding and of your betrayal to all things Welsh. You have brought English blood into our lands, de Shera! The Devil now walks among us!”

Bhrodi had Penelope in one hand and Tacey in the other. He pretended as if he didn’t have a care in the world. “There is a cobbler down here who does excellent work,” he told Penelope. “In fact, he has made me several pairs of boots. Sometimes he comes to Rhydilian to work if we have enough tasks for him. He had his own stall at the castle.”

Penelope turned to respond to him
when a flying wad of mud hit her on the side of the face. As she gasped and wiped it away, Bhrodi turned around and plowed back through his men, emerging from the group to where ap Gwyfn’s wife was digging up more dirt out of the avenue. Her ladies screamed as he rushed at her and the woman looked up in time to see de Shera bearing down on her. Startled, she lost her balance and ended up on her bum in the mud. Bhrodi loomed over her, his eyes blazing.
Serpent eyes.

“You are a foolish and reckless
wench if I’ve ever seen one,” he growled. “You know nothing of what you speak. Your husband came to my wedding; indeed, he did. He also led an attack against the English at the feast, who were there under my protection. He betrayed me and my trust, and this I cannot abide. If you do not want to end up as he did, then I suggest you shut your mouth and return home. If I ever see you again, I will make sure you join your husband. Is this in any way unclear?”

By this time, the woman was cowering.
Her arm was up over her head as if to prevent him from striking her.

“Where is he?” she cried, her voice considerably weaker. “What did you do to him?”

Bhrodi just looked at her. “You have lived in my realm long enough,” he said. “You know what happens to traitors.”

The woman’s face crumpled and she began to weep. “You killed him!”

Bhrodi shook his head. “I did not kill him,” he said. It was technically the truth. “He brought the serpent down upon himself. I had nothing to do with it.”

All of the women began to weep and hiss at that point, all of them collapsing beside their stricken mistress.
It was a writhing, dirty mass that laid down on the street and wept.

“The beast!” ap
Gwyfn’s widow cried. “He was fodder for the beast!”

Bhrodi didn’t say another word. He turned around and headed back to his group in time to see Penelope wiping the remnants of the mud off her face
. She was looking at him, however; she had heard the woman crying about the serpent. She also noticed that everyone around them seemed to be watching what was going on, listening to what should have been a private conversation. She was beginning to feel uneasy.

“Shall we go?” Bhrodi said casually as he walked up. “I fear our business is
concluded for the day.”

Tacey was anxious to get away from the frightening women and scooted up with Ianto and Yestin to hold their hands as Bhrodi clutched Penelope by the elbow
. Bhrodi, knowing what Penelope did, that others had heard the edgy conversation, turned everyone towards an alley that led back in the direction of their horses.

“We will go this way,” he said as the group shifted. “It is shorter.”

The alley was narrow, smelling heavily of urine, and Penelope picked up her skirts so they wouldn’t drag through the rancid mud. They could hear the crying of the women fading but she couldn’t help but notice that Bhrodi was moving rather swiftly. All the while, she was reflecting upon what had been said. She was particularly interested in one thing in particular.